Over thousands of years, human civilizations have had various ideas of justice and different standards of behavior. How have ethical principles developed and evolved in history and what has been their relationship to the level of civilization? What kinds of ethics and mottoes are appropriate for our time? What would be a good motto or ethic for you to live by?
The law of the jungle
The law of the jungle is one possibility. It is very simple: it is revenge based upon doing worse to the other than they have done to you, i.e., "You steal my chicken; I'll steal your cow," "You kill my servant; I'll kill your son." "You give me a black eye; I'll break your nose." Basically the thought process is, "How can I hurt the other person more?" The most ruthless survives.
The law of the jungle is vividly articulated in the movie The Untouchables. This movie is based upon the true story of officer Elliot Ness's successful pursuit of gangster Al Capone. Elliot Ness is determined to catch Capone and stop his crimes. A hardened street cop explains to Elliot Ness that in order to get Capone, he needs to operate by the law of the jungle: "You want to know how you do it? Here's how: they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!"
That is how Capone himself operated--on brutality, murder, and doing the other person "one better". The law of the jungle was the only law Capone understood.
Comments
Under more ordinary circumstances, this kind of ruthlessness gets out of control and causes a chain reaction which can continue on and on. This is often the origin of blood feuds between families, ethnic groups, and nations that never seem to end. Such actions are taken partly out of revenge and partly to teach the other side “a lesson” for what they have done.
In reality, no lessons are learned. Each side is caught in a vicious cycle of escalating violence. As a character says in the movie Munich, which is about the revenge-retaliation-revenge cycle that has taken hold between the Israelis and the Palestinians: "There is no peace at the end of this."
We usually think of the "law of the jungle” in relation to primitive cultures. However, a remarkable number of people in modern times continue to practice this way of life. They lash back harshly at those who hurt or offend them. Enemy nations have often tried to deter or punish each other through a massive escalation of violence. As long as there are people and nations that live by this code of conduct, the world can never achieve lasting peace.
An eye for eye…
One of the most advanced legal codes of the ancient world was that of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, around 1800 B.C. The code dealt with all sorts of rights, regulations, and crimes and it was carved into a large black slate which was publicly displayed.
This code was state law and was based on the principle of “an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth, a limb for limb." The Hammurabi code was actually a great step up on the ladder of justice from the law of the jungle. At least it was fairly equal.
In Hammurabi's Code, however, the punishment was different for different classes of offenders and victims, and in that way it was not equal.For instance, it stated that "if a noble destroys the eye of an aristocrat, his eye shall be destroyed. If he destroys the eye of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver in compensation."
A similar principle guides the code of justice described in the Old Testament of the Bible where, instead of literally taking an eye for an eye, a system of fair compensation was worked out. If you injured someone you had to compensate the person with some amount of money or other goods according to a generally agreed scale. The Judaic Law applied equally to everyone. In these ways, it too represented a step up on the scale of human ethics and justice.
The Golden Rule—positivity and prevention
The ethical systems that have developed in the world are often based on the idea of reciprocity. This means that we must take into consideration the effects of our actions on other people. To do this we have to be able to empathize with others and see things through their eyes, not just through our own. There are two main variations on the principle of reciprocity, which is often referred to as the Golden Rule.
In the fifth century B.C.E., the Chinese sage Confucius was asked, "Is there any one word that can serve as a principle for the conduct of life?" Confucius answered, "Perhaps the word is reciprocity: do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you." Here we can imagine, "Suppose the other person were me? How would I feel?" We act out of compassion. We do not hurt others because we would feel their pain as our own. When we see someone suffering, we are touched because we can imagine how the other person feels. So, the logic goes, if you yourself don't like to be hit, don’t hit others; if you yourself don’t like to be disrespected, don’t disrespect others.
For Jesus this ethic was too passive. Instead, he taught that we should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In this case, we actively help those who need help because we realize that if we were in that situation we ourselves would want to be helped. We listen to others because we want to be listened to. We respect others because we want to be respected. We treat others as if they were a part of ourselves. We love our neighbor as ourselves, as biblical scriptures teach.
This teaching was another great step forward in the conduct of human relationships. For the first time it was assumed there was a connection of heart between human beings. It went beyond prescribing punishment to advocating positive and preventive human action by challenging people to put themselves in the shoes of another. It offered a positive vision of human life in which people treated each other with courtesy, respect, and love.
The highest law--loving your enemy
Jesus challenged people to go beyond even this. He said that we should not just engage in reciprocity. We should love not merely our neighbors and friends, but we should love our enemies too.
Few people in the past two thousand years have been able to practice such a quality and depth of love. To ordinary people it seems unrealistic. Yet there have been such individuals. Modern day examples include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.
All three of these men suffered at the hands of their enemies. Gandhi was imprisoned and persecuted by the British government as he worked non-violently to secure India's independence. Martin Luther King. Jr. was mistreated, accused, and imprisoned even as he reached out with non-violence and love, trying to reconcile blacks and whites and establish justice between them. Nelson Mandela spent twenty eight years in a South African prison—the victim of an unjust system of apartheid that treated all nonwhites poorly. When he was released, amazingly, he forgave his oppressors and even worked together with the white president F. W. de Klerk to transform the country into a true democracy of all races.
Although for many of us such a standard of love seems very idealistic and out of reach, we should realize that some people have been able to practice that level of love. In fact, these advocates of loving the enemy have said that it is the only real solution to human problems.
Choosing the future
What is your motto? When something bad happens, how do you respond? Do you apply the law of the jungle and do worse to the other person than they did to you? Do you get back at them with exact "justice"? Do you try to prevent problems in the first place and respond to problems when they occur by "doing to others as you would have them do to you?" Can you go as far as loving your enemy?
Mr. Robinson lives by the Golden Rule: "I live in an apartment complex where each adult is allowed one parking space in the parking lot. My wife and I have two spaces. The problem is, our neighbor has three teenage sons living with her. A couple of them drive and use cars, but they don't have parking places. So what do they do? They park in our places, and we have no place to park. We pointed out the problem to them and suggested they talk to the landlord about providing them with an extra space or two or arrange for street parking. When they didn't, we talked to the landlord. When he did nothing, we talked to the police. After the police visited the mother, they stopped parking in our places. But we began to find nails in our tires. Oh, we couldn't prove it was them, but we'd have a flat every couple of weeks or so from a nail in the tire. We reported that to the police too, but since we couldn't prove it was them, we had to pay for the new tires ourselves. I can't tell you how many times I've walked past their cars after dark, wanting to take revenge by putting nails in their tires. After all, their cars are as vulnerable as ours are. I can sneak out there late at night and do damage, if I choose to, and probably not get caught. Two can play that game, as they say. But I don't do it. I'm a grown man, and I believe in the Golden Rule. I wouldn't do that to another person, period. I wish they lived by the Golden Rule too, but just because they don't doesn't mean I'm not going to. Sooner or later their bad actions will catch up with them, I believe."
Comments
The above story brings up an important point of ethical behavior: Do you determine your behavior and attitude or do you allow them to be determined by what others do? For example, if we say, "He makes me mad," we are saying that we are not really responsible for our own emotions and behavior. Consciously or unconsciously, we often claim that our environment and the actions of others determine our feelings and actions. If we think like this, we have given other people the power to make us happy, sad, or angry and the power to make us do bad things. We think it is the fault of others if we are in a bad mood and shout at everyone. Yet we can never be free that way, because other people will sometimes hurt, frustrate, and upset us. Freedom means not being a slave to the emotions and impulses that others bring up in us. It means not doing wrong ourselves, even if we have been wronged.
We are responsible for the way we are and the way we act. Being in control of our emotions means that we decide how we are going to act in certain situations. We decide how we are going to be affected by our environment.
Survivors of concentration camps have reported that there are two kinds of prisoners in the camps: those who allow the situation to dominate them and who then become craven, and those who decide that they are not going to be dominated by the situation, no matter how bad it is. The latter could keep their integrity and inner freedom. We, too, should never give away our integrity and freedom. No matter the situation, we have the freedom to choose and act based on values and principles.
It is good to reflect on our values and mottoes in life. Then we can escape from being the victim of our circumstances and instead become the masters and mistresses of our own lives.
Some common mottoes people use to instruct themselves in living: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Handsome is as handsome does. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Those who live by the sword die by the sword. Waste not, want not. A penny saved is a penny earned. A friend in need is a friend indeed. What goes around comes around.
Questions for Reflection
1. What is the “law of the jungle”?
2. What is Hammurabi’s Code?
3. What does an “eye for eye” mean?
4. What is the Golden Rule?
5. Do you think it is really possible to “love your enemy”?
6. When something bad happens, how do you respond?
7. Do you choose your behavior and attitude or do you allow them to be determined by others?
Exercise: “Me, Others, Society, and the Future”
Please answer the questions or complete the statements:
Me: “It's my life, and I can do with it whatever I like.” True or false?
What do I want others to think about me?
What three (non-material) things could I not live without?
The single most important thing in my life is…
I am the type of person who…
Others: What is the value of a human being?
Are there any beliefs that all people have in common?
Are people responsible for their actions? If so, is this always true?
Are human beings basically good or evil?
What I value the most in others is . . .
I feel really good when other people…
Society: What do I gain or lose from being a member of society?
Who decides what a society is like?
Does my behavior make a difference to society?
I want to live in a society that…
I believe that the main responsibility to create a good society lies in the hands of…
Future: What do I think the world is going to be like in ten years? Will things be the same, better or worse?
Can I make a difference in the world?
What do I dream of doing with my life in the future?
If I could contribute one thing to the world, what would it be?
My ideal world is like…
Reflection Exercise: “My Motto in Life”
1. What is the guiding motto of your life? 2. Into which category does your outlook on life fit? What are your reasons?
Over thousands of years, human civilizations have had various ideas of justice and different standards of behavior. How have ethical principles developed and evolved in history and what has been their relationship to the level of civilization? What kinds of ethics and mottoes are appropriate for our time? What would be a good motto or ethic for you to live by?The law of the jungle
The law of the jungle is one possibility. It is very simple: it is revenge based upon doing worse to the other than they have done to you, i.e., "You steal my chicken; I'll steal your cow," "You kill my servant; I'll kill your son." "You give me a black eye; I'll break your nose." Basically the thought process is, "How can I hurt the other person more?" The most ruthless survives.
The law of the jungle is vividly articulated in the movie The Untouchables. This movie is based upon the true story of officer Elliot Ness's successful pursuit of gangster Al Capone. Elliot Ness is determined to catch Capone and stop his crimes. A hardened street cop explains to Elliot Ness that in order to get Capone, he needs to operate by the law of the jungle: "You want to know how you do it? Here's how: they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!"
That is how Capone himself operated--on brutality, murder, and doing the other person "one better". The law of the jungle was the only law Capone understood.
Comments
Under more ordinary circumstances, this kind of ruthlessness gets out of control and causes a chain reaction which can continue on and on. This is often the origin of blood feuds between families, ethnic groups, and nations that never seem to end. Such actions are taken partly out of revenge and partly to teach the other side “a lesson” for what they have done.
In reality, no lessons are learned. Each side is caught in a vicious cycle of escalating violence. As a character says in the movie Munich, which is about the revenge-retaliation-revenge cycle that has taken hold between the Israelis and the Palestinians: "There is no peace at the end of this."
We usually think of the "law of the jungle” in relation to primitive cultures. However, a remarkable number of people in modern times continue to practice this way of life. They lash back harshly at those who hurt or offend them. Enemy nations have often tried to deter or punish each other through a massive escalation of violence. As long as there are people and nations that live by this code of conduct, the world can never achieve lasting peace.
An eye for eye…
One of the most advanced legal codes of the ancient world was that of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, around 1800 B.C. The code dealt with all sorts of rights, regulations, and crimes and it was carved into a large black slate which was publicly displayed.
This code was state law and was based on the principle of “an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth, a limb for limb." The Hammurabi code was actually a great step up on the ladder of justice from the law of the jungle. At least it was fairly equal.
In Hammurabi's Code, however, the punishment was different for different classes of offenders and victims, and in that way it was not equal. For instance, it stated that "if a noble destroys the eye of an aristocrat, his eye shall be destroyed. If he destroys the eye of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver in compensation."
A similar principle guides the code of justice described in the Old Testament of the Bible where, instead of literally taking an eye for an eye, a system of fair compensation was worked out. If you injured someone you had to compensate the person with some amount of money or other goods according to a generally agreed scale. The Judaic Law applied equally to everyone. In these ways, it too represented a step up on the scale of human ethics and justice.
The Golden Rule—positivity and prevention
The ethical systems that have developed in the world are often based on the idea of reciprocity. This means that we must take into consideration the effects of our actions on other people. To do this we have to be able to empathize with others and see things through their eyes, not just through our own. There are two main variations on the principle of reciprocity, which is often referred to as the Golden Rule.
In the fifth century B.C.E., the Chinese sage Confucius was asked, "Is there any one word that can serve as a principle for the conduct of life?" Confucius answered, "Perhaps the word is reciprocity: do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you." Here we can imagine, "Suppose the other person were me? How would I feel?" We act out of compassion. We do not hurt others because we would feel their pain as our own. When we see someone suffering, we are touched because we can imagine how the other person feels. So, the logic goes, if you yourself don't like to be hit, don’t hit others; if you yourself don’t like to be disrespected, don’t disrespect others.
For Jesus this ethic was too passive. Instead, he taught that we should "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In this case, we actively help those who need help because we realize that if we were in that situation we ourselves would want to be helped. We listen to others because we want to be listened to. We respect others because we want to be respected. We treat others as if they were a part of ourselves. We love our neighbor as ourselves, as biblical scriptures teach.
This teaching was another great step forward in the conduct of human relationships. For the first time it was assumed there was a connection of heart between human beings. It went beyond prescribing punishment to advocating positive and preventive human action by challenging people to put themselves in the shoes of another. It offered a positive vision of human life in which people treated each other with courtesy, respect, and love.
The highest law--loving your enemy
Jesus challenged people to go beyond even this. He said that we should not just engage in reciprocity. We should love not merely our neighbors and friends, but we should love our enemies too.
Few people in the past two thousand years have been able to practice such a quality and depth of love. To ordinary people it seems unrealistic. Yet there have been such individuals. Modern day examples include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.
All three of these men suffered at the hands of their enemies. Gandhi was imprisoned and persecuted by the British government as he worked non-violently to secure India's independence. Martin Luther King. Jr. was mistreated, accused, and imprisoned even as he reached out with non-violence and love, trying to reconcile blacks and whites and establish justice between them. Nelson Mandela spent twenty eight years in a South African prison—the victim of an unjust system of apartheid that treated all nonwhites poorly. When he was released, amazingly, he forgave his oppressors and even worked together with the white president F. W. de Klerk to transform the country into a true democracy of all races.
Although for many of us such a standard of love seems very idealistic and out of reach, we should realize that some people have been able to practice that level of love. In fact, these advocates of loving the enemy have said that it is the only real solution to human problems.
Choosing the future
What is your motto? When something bad happens, how do you respond? Do you apply the law of the jungle and do worse to the other person than they did to you? Do you get back at them with exact "justice"? Do you try to prevent problems in the first place and respond to problems when they occur by "doing to others as you would have them do to you?" Can you go as far as loving your enemy?
Mr. Robinson lives by the Golden Rule:
"I live in an apartment complex where each adult is allowed one parking space in the parking lot. My wife and I have two spaces. The problem is, our neighbor has three teenage sons living with her. A couple of them drive and use cars, but they don't have parking places. So what do they do? They park in our places, and we have no place to park.
We pointed out the problem to them and suggested they talk to the landlord about providing them with an extra space or two or arrange for street parking. When they didn't, we talked to the landlord. When he did nothing, we talked to the police.
After the police visited the mother, they stopped parking in our places. But we began to find nails in our tires. Oh, we couldn't prove it was them, but we'd have a flat every couple of weeks or so from a nail in the tire. We reported that to the police too, but since we couldn't prove it was them, we had to pay for the new tires ourselves.
I can't tell you how many times I've walked past their cars after dark, wanting to take revenge by putting nails in their tires. After all, their cars are as vulnerable as ours are. I can sneak out there late at night and do damage, if I choose to, and probably not get caught. Two can play that game, as they say.
But I don't do it. I'm a grown man, and I believe in the Golden Rule. I wouldn't do that to another person, period. I wish they lived by the Golden Rule too, but just because they don't doesn't mean I'm not going to. Sooner or later their bad actions will catch up with them, I believe."
Comments
The above story brings up an important point of ethical behavior: Do you determine your behavior and attitude or do you allow them to be determined by what others do? For example, if we say, "He makes me mad," we are saying that we are not really responsible for our own emotions and behavior. Consciously or unconsciously, we often claim that our environment and the actions of others determine our feelings and actions. If we think like this, we have given other people the power to make us happy, sad, or angry and the power to make us do bad things. We think it is the fault of others if we are in a bad mood and shout at everyone. Yet we can never be free that way, because other people will sometimes hurt, frustrate, and upset us. Freedom means not being a slave to the emotions and impulses that others bring up in us. It means not doing wrong ourselves, even if we have been wronged.
We are responsible for the way we are and the way we act. Being in control of our emotions means that we decide how we are going to act in certain situations. We decide how we are going to be affected by our environment.
Survivors of concentration camps have reported that there are two kinds of prisoners in the camps: those who allow the situation to dominate them and who then become craven, and those who decide that they are not going to be dominated by the situation, no matter how bad it is. The latter could keep their integrity and inner freedom. We, too, should never give away our integrity and freedom. No matter the situation, we have the freedom to choose and act based on values and principles.
It is good to reflect on our values and mottoes in life. Then we can escape from being the victim of our circumstances and instead become the masters and mistresses of our own lives.
Some common mottoes people use to instruct themselves in living:
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Handsome is as handsome does.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Those who live by the sword die by the sword.
Waste not, want not.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
What goes around comes around.
Questions for Reflection
1. What is the “law of the jungle”?
2. What is Hammurabi’s Code?
3. What does an “eye for eye” mean?
4. What is the Golden Rule?
5. Do you think it is really possible to “love your enemy”?
6. When something bad happens, how do you respond?
7. Do you choose your behavior and attitude or do you allow them to be determined by others?
Exercise: “Me, Others, Society, and the Future”
Please answer the questions or complete the statements:
Me:
“It's my life, and I can do with it whatever I like.” True or false?
What do I want others to think about me?
What three (non-material) things could I not live without?
The single most important thing in my life is…
I am the type of person who…
Others:
What is the value of a human being?
Are there any beliefs that all people have in common?
Are people responsible for their actions? If so, is this always true?
Are human beings basically good or evil?
What I value the most in others is . . .
I feel really good when other people…
Society:
What do I gain or lose from being a member of society?
Who decides what a society is like?
Does my behavior make a difference to society?
I want to live in a society that…
I believe that the main responsibility to create a good society lies in the hands of…
Future:
What do I think the world is going to be like in ten years? Will things be the same, better or worse?
Can I make a difference in the world?
What do I dream of doing with my life in the future?
If I could contribute one thing to the world, what would it be?
My ideal world is like…
Reflection Exercise: “My Motto in Life”
1. What is the guiding motto of your life?
2. Into which category does your outlook on life fit? What are your reasons?